Alan Wake is a successful horror story author. His fiancee was his muse, and she instilled in him both his inspiration and his nightmares. One day, Wake's fiancee goes missing, and as a result, he starts to crack--and stops sleeping.

Alan then goes to see a psychiatrist at a hospital in Pride Falls, Washington. There he meets an attendant who's a spitting image of his missing fiancee. And sure enough, the nightmares start up again. Only this time, they're a little too real. Is Alan going mad? Or is a sinister plot starting to unravel in Pride Falls?